Endangered Resources

The threat of invaders, human and natural, has become a constant threat to basket makers. The logging and lumber industry in Michigan, southeastern Canada and upstate New York have stripped the land of black ash trees for many years becoming a problem to the Anishinaabe people.. Where there were once thousands of trees the makers could pick from, they now use whatever they can find. Paired with logging, an invasive species, the Emerald Ash Borer, threatens the existence of the remaining trees (Canada Natural Resources). 

 The various threats pose a problem to the women who are trying to pass on a longstanding tradition and way of life to future generations of indigenous girls and women. Many creators speak of how they watched their mothers and grandmothers weave the baskets and learned from them. If the black ash tree continues to decline so rapidly, this tradition could be compromised after being a longstanding way of life for hundreds of years.